Solution Architect Interview Questions
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Solution Architect interview questions shared by candidates
Below are some of the questions I could remember that they asked. Hope it helps What is CIDR block and what do you use it for Troubleshoot a webpage that can't access the DB Troubleshoot why you can't access a webpage server What is DOS/DDOS and how to mitigate this What is CDN and why is it important who would setup the CDN What is database indexing and why is it important Difference between NOSQL and RDBS Difference between object storage and file system Difference between Asymetric and symetric crypto Whats a three tier web page architect,and how do you monitor to see a bottleneck and how do you improve it How would you design an e-commerce web page and how would you improve it What is MSA If you collected logs and wanted to store them for 14 days then move them over to permanent storage for a few years how would you do this How would you analyze objects stored in S3 and share them with users What ports do databases use Difference between IOPS, Throughput, and Latency What is a web application firewall and how do you use it, what layer is it on How would you monitor utilization of equipment in a datacenter How do you secure a web site How would a developer make an API friendlier Of the 14 principles which one do you relate with mostly and use at work, Which one do you not agree with
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CIDR - Classless Inter-domain Routing, Which replaced the old class based IP addressing scheme based on A,B & C. CIDR has 2 parts a network Address (samel like normal IP address) followed with a subnet prefix. the subnet prefix decides how many bits of the IP address has taken for network. and rest will be allocated for the subnet. Less
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DoS- Denial of Service DDos - Distributed Denial of service. AWS Shield will provide protection for CDN and S3 from DDoS attack . Less
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IOPS - Input and output per seconds - measure the capacity in terms of the number request can be served in a second. Throughput - The volume of data that can be handles and measured in MBPS Latency - is the time between a request and response. Less
The 1st telephonic interview was around technical question from applications to storage. TCP vs UDP , NAS vs SAN , RAID 5 vs 0+1 , Firewalls , Hypervisor , Load Balancer , Containers, Dockers,Pupper Shef , CDN , Map reducer , big data , SQL vs NO SQL , Router , Switch , OSI model , development tools , unix shell scripting , tuning rdbms , running application , tuning I/O , SOA , Continuous Integration , Continuous deployment , Monolithic application , loosely coupled application , Cloud security, Encryption , dedup, WAN optimization For 2nd telephonic it was mainly focused on example based like Give me an example where you have done something which no one has done , give me an example where you have failed , give me an example where you went out of your charter/comfort zone to help someone , give me an example where you have handled a difficult customer and how you have handled it , what have u learn new lately and how you have implemented it , Next was face2face onsite for whole day it started with presentation/white boarding then one technical and four example based interviews , in a few example based interviews they might ask you to do a architecture white boarding
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the techround in face2face round was more or less same like the phone screen . They expect the SA should have knowledge on all the areas plus depth in 1-2 area. If you have depth in 1-2 area they are going to go deep in that. It make sense to tell them initially that your expertise is in which area so that they can go deep into the same Less
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HI, I just took my first interview with Amazon and I was asked to come for second interview. In the email, HR asked me to prepare more or less same way I have prepared for the first interview. I was wondering if you could give me insights about the second and third interview? I am coming from non-software background, it is more or less based on telecommunications and networking. If I am called for on-site interview, did you happen to do coding problem on site? Your insight would be highly appreciated. Less
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Its very important that you learn the 14 amazon leadership principles , your example based answers should reflect them also try to learn their offering , if possible complete the aws solution architecture training since it helps in white boarding Less
Describe what happens at Layer 2?
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The second layer is the Data link layer. It is that layer that operates with switches. this is also the layer that works with MAC addresses. This layer transfers data between adjacent network nodes in a wide area network or between nodes on the same local area network segment. Less
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The second layer of the OSI model would be the Data Link Layer which consists of two additional layers - MAC - Media Access Control and Logical Link Layer. Logical Link helps provide flow control, acknowledgment and error notification and the MAC Layer is a fancy way of 'access control'. If you are a 'Star Trek The Next Generation' fan one easy way to describe this layer is the universal translator in the TNG universe. It would essentially translate digital requests into ones their physical counterparts can understand. The same way language would seem to magically pass through this device to the physical data link layer and then, in turn, tell it how to communicate with your brarin and then back out without your needing to know. Less
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The second layer is the Data link layer. It is that layer that operates with switches. this is also the layer that works with MAC addresses. This layer transfers data between adjacent network nodes in a wide area network or between nodes on the same local area network segment. Less
How do you write performant Java code?
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You write Java so it complies to the functional and performance specification.
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You don't, you use Node, Ruby or Python
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Confirming as expected - with design ranges
Name five Linux commands that have five or more letters.
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compress/uncompress, netstat, cksum, hostname, crontab, alias Wonder why they ask such silly questions.? Isn't it easy to google? Less
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shutdown, chmod, chown, ifconfig, chkconfig
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Just create 5 distinct aliases for ls that have 5 or more letters, the only reasonable answer to this childish quiz Less
What would you do if a web application could not talk to the database?
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I would first verify the database is up, check RDS monitoring to see if anything sticks out. Check the security group of the database to ensure that the port the web app connects to it on has the right source sg/subnets Less
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I will check if there is any firewall and check ports if they are open
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Process of elimination, See if any other apps using the database are down. Try to establish if it's a database server issue. If not I'd move to the firewall and establish port 1521 was open on the database server. If that checked out I would start on the webserver and probably start with rebooting the webserver, since it's down anyway. Start with the simple stuff and work my way through troubleshooting the webserver, is the webserver running, services started, error logs, etc... Less
Tell me about a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility and why was that important?
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rs
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When I worked for AFT - American Federation of Teachers, I noticed that the person responsible for developing SQL Server stored procedures in T-SQL had difficulties following requirements and developed SQL code with issues. I was responsible for executing these stored procedures and writing front-end code that would interact with them. During unit testing, I noticed that the data I was getting to the front end was slow, requests in some instances were timing out, and I also tried to emphasize on the issue a few times with that SQL developer. When I realized that this individual could not deliver a proper solution, I modified the joints in the SQL Statements to return data faster. Because of my involvement in changing SQL statements, I was able to deliver the task on time without any issues. Less
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Leadership Principles
No, specific interview questions as such (tells you how inefficient the process is) but mostly talking about your CV and past experience.
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Just talk about your past projects and
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I had a similar recent experience with "JLL London" There were red flags throughout the recruitment process but I chose to accept the job and only focus on the positives. You live and learn Less
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There were a few red flags throughout the recruitment process but I chose to accept the job and only focus on the positives. You live and learn Less
Tell me about the decision you made that was wrong/right?
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Hi, I have recently found out that they ask very detailed information about current salary. Did they ask you the same during your hiring process? if so, did they seek any documents (like pay stubs or contacting your previous employer) to verify your answer? Thank you in advance. Less
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Thanks for the insight - can you talk more about face2face interview rounds? Any help would be highly appreciated mate. Less
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focus on the leadership principles and tell a story that tackles a number of them all at once. Less